In 2016, Janna Ruth’s plans for the new year was one submission to an agent. By the end of the year, she had won a writing competition with German publisher Ueberreuter and was deep in the throes to publish a second novel with a group of self-publishers. That novel, a modern fairy tale retelling with mental health topics, went on to win the SERAPH Phantastikpreis. Since then, Janna has published more than fifteen books in German and English.
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Transcript
Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.
[00:00:16] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode #223 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. So thrilled that you’re here with me today to talk to Janna Ruth, who was a delight to talk to. And we talked about transforming trauma into art, which is something I think we do so often both in fiction and in memoir. So, stick around for that. It’s a good, interesting, deep conversation. I know you’re going to enjoy it. [00:00:46] What’s been going on around here. What hasn’t been going on around here? Good things. I’m feeling lots, lots better still working on getting diagnoses and stuff and having tests and things like that. But I’m able to be in my chair happily all day, most every day of the week for the last a week and a half or so. So that has been wonderful to feel that energy again. And I must say that my new process that I shared with you last week, so I’ve been doing it two weeks is so cool. It’s so good. Oh my God! For me in my life where it is right now, it works very well for me to designate a day with a large task in it. Instead of trying to do a little bit of, a lot of dark, a lot of heavy time consuming tasks on one day, I’m breaking them up into days. So Mondays and Fridays are for working on my current project, which is right now in novel. Tuesdays are for teaching. Thursdays are for talking, doing stuff like this, making the videos for my classes and Wednesdays are for the creative non-fiction the memoir stuff that I do. And yesterday was a Wednesday and I had the best time. There’s always this sense of guilt. When I am working on non-fiction, when I’m producing episodes for You’re Already Ready, or writing essays for the Patreon, or working on the four different nonfiction books that I’m working on right now. [00:02:16] There’s always this little voice nagging at me saying, you know, you should be working on one project and it should be the Quincy book, which is the book you’re focused on right now. How dare you do this? And to give myself a full day to do that and to give myself these full days, just to focus on one thing has been truly, truly awesome and liberating and makes me feel so happy. So I can recommend identifying one big task per day and trying to get it done instead of like, I’ve always done before trying to get 73,000 important things done in one day. So I may be the last person to learn this, but, you know, I got there. On Friday, speaking of this Friday, was a working on my current project day, and I finished the book. The tentative working title is Quincy Maddow Wants Her Stuff Back. And I finished the first draft. And what that means for me is I wrote the dark moment and I realized this is such a dark moment. She has lost everything now, and I, it’s a good one. So I can’t easily get her out of it. I don’t know how to get her out of it. It’s so dark that I need to take some time away from it. And for me, that looks like going back and starting my revision process. So it’s, I consider it finishing a draft, even though I always tell everybody to finish their whole draft and then have the satisfaction of writing the end at the end. [00:03:39] I can’t do it, but I have to kind of cheat myself every time and say, nope, I got as far as I can and now I need to start revision. For me that is a complete draft. If I get to write the full dark moment, which I did. So on Monday I started revising and right now here’s my plan and it’s not conventional, but what my agent would like is for me to write out a full synopsis. So I’m reading the entire book with my revision process. And making a plan of what I want this book actually to be, because right now it is trash mountain. It is a pile of garbage. I am not being, I’m not a belittling myself, it is just not good. It is not readable, but in my revision plan, I come up with what the book actually is going to be. That is my revision plan. From there I can write her a synopsis, after that I’m going to write the first, I don’t know, three to six chapters. I’ll probably get up to the inciting incident and make those goods so I will revise them and then I’ll do some more revision and then I’ll do some more passes, kind of like I would do on a full book, but I don’t want to do that for this. [00:04:49] I want to send her the synopsis and these first really clean, really good chapters, which she can then try to sell on proposal without the whole book being enhanced. If you’re a first time author, you cannot do this period, you can’t do it for fiction and you generally can’t do it for memoir unless you are, you know, Kardashian famous. So, but once you are established and you’ve already proven that you can finish books to deadline, that’s when you get to do this. It may not work. She may try to sell it and nobody bites and then I have to revise the whole thing and make it fantastic and then make it irresistible that we may end up having to go down that route. I hope not because number one, I like selling books and number two, I like revising to deadline. So that would be awesome. After I send that package to my agent, my next current project on the docket will be to do kind of the same thing for the terribly dark thriller that I told you about. Last week, which I’m not going to tell anybody about, but it is so dark, so horrifying that I want to read it. So I’m going to do the same thing right out of synopsis as best I can because everyone hates us synopsis, people. We hate writing them, editors and agents hate reading them. They’re dry, they’re dull, but you do the best you can. And then I’m going to write out three to six, hopefully fantastic chapters that she can also then try to sell and proposal when there’ll be awesome. Great. [00:06:14] So those are the things coming up for me on my Monday and Friday writing days. Oh, other news. Let’s see, I had a BookBub, middle of January. I can’t remember exactly what it was. My amazing assistant Ed is a BookBub whisperer. And I just want to say, since the Biden administration came into office, I have sold so many more books. And I know that I personally have had just more bandwidth in my brain to read. Also I have more bandwidth because I’ve taken most of the apps off my phone, which has really helped with quieting some of the noise. So I’m enjoying that. Speaking of noise. I don’t know what’s going on in the streets. Sorry if you hear strange noises. Also in news, I have been getting some of my rights back for older books. I got my rights back for a Lichen Stitches, which is a collection of essays, that like in a memoir form. And that book came out in, I want to say 2012. So it’s been nine years. I’m really excited to get this back. The physical book went out of print maybe six or seven years ago. No one’s been able to buy that, but because they were still selling the digital version, and because I wasn’t diligent about trying to get my rights back, I’ve just been letting them sell the Kindle version, right. So that kind of kept it in print. [00:07:36] However, now I have all of my rights back. They are going to un-publish Chronicle books is going to un-publish that book, and then I get to buy a new cover. I get to do editing. I get to add, I’m going to add two essays and an introduction, which will make it attractive for even people who bought the book in the past, who loved the book. Now I get to offer them kind of an added bonus value, second edition, which I will be able to offer cheaper than Chronicle books was able to, I think they’re selling it at 9.99 and I’ll probably sell it at 5.99 and I’ll make 70% of that instead of making 25% of net. So that’s exciting, it’s quite a bit of work to do, but I also got back the rights for books, one and three in the Cypress Hollow series, which was my first series. So this is my first book. I just got the rights back for How to Knit a Love Song and the third book. Very exciting, cause there’s five books in that series and I would love to be able to, and the fourth and the fifth book are mine in all countries, except for Australia where they own the rights. I might try to get my rights reverted there too. So then I would own all five outright, but right now I don’t have number two. [00:08:52] HarperCollins still has that and they have it because, in their declamation of rights reversion, they said, we will not revert these rights, because there are still books in the warehouse. And apparently as a term of this particular contract rights can’t revert. If they’re still holding onto books in the warehouse, why they have a ten-year-old book with physical copies, still in a warehouse that they haven’t remaindered total mystery to me. But I did something that I’m proud of. I wrote to them, I found out that there were 54 copies sitting in a warehouse somewhere and there’s this thing inside publishers called special sales and special sales will sell the books to the author. Generally, at 50% off, you don’t make any royalty on them, but you can buy them for that. And then you can sell them if you want it to or do what you want. So I wrote to the special sales department and I am requesting to purchase the 54 copies of those books, they are 13.99. So I did the math and if I’m paying half price on those I’ll end up spending $377. $377 to get all five books in under my control so that I can then set the first book to free and have Ed my assistant run BookBub’s on that and get them, get to drive them all the way through a five book series, that I’m proud of. I am super, super excited about doing this and I’ve already heard back from them and that is getting underway. So kind of big stuff happening around me, a lot of stuff. And it feels really good after having more than a month, basically off feeling so badly. [00:10:37] And now to have this motion around me, it’s delicious. I’m loving it. And I’m also trying to, I’m trying to rest before I need rest, which is if you’re a person like me, that does that, you don’t even understand what I just said, but I’m trying to learn how to do it resting before I need rest. And in fact, as soon as I finished this recording, instead of spending the hour that I would have free, that I would normally fill with Slack and email and all of those things that need to get done, because this is a long working day for me. I’ve been working from 8 and I’ll be working till 6:30 tonight because of appointments and coaching stuff. I’m going to go lay on the couch for an hour, even though my brain is saying, think of everything you could get done in an hour. Think of all the things you could catch up on. No, I deserve rest. I am worthy of rest. And even though I don’t feel like resting, it is good for me. So I’m want to do, go do it. Look at me learning. We can still learn people. All right, please enjoy this a wonderful interview with Janna. I know you will. I hope that you’re getting your writing done. If you are not, why not? Why not do 10 minutes today? Just to stick it to the man to show me that you can do it and then come find me on the internet and tell me how it went. Okay my friends we’ll talk soon. [00:11:53] Do you wonder why you’re not getting your creative work done? Do you make a plan to write and then fail to follow through? Again? Well, my sweet friend, maybe you’d get a lot out of my Patreon. Each month, I write an essay on living your creative life as a creative person, which is way different than living as a person who’ve been just Netflix 20 hours a week and I have lived both of those ways, so I know. You can get each essay and access to the whole back catalog of them for just a dollar a month. Which is an amount that really truly helps support me at this here writing desk. If you pledge the $3 level, you’ll get motivating texts for me that you can respond to. And if you pledge at the $5 a month level, you get to ask me questions about your creative life, that I’ll answer in the mini episodes. So basically I’m your mini coach. Go to patreon.com/Rachael (R A C H A E L) to get these perks and more and thank you so much.Rachael Herron: [00:12:57] Okay. Well, I could not be more pleased to welcome to the show Janna Ruth today. Hello, Janna, is it Jenna or Janna?
Janna Ruth: [00:12:59] Either way.
Rachael Herron: [00:13:00] What do you prefer?
Janna Ruth: [00:13:04] I’m German. So I originally picked a name that could be read either in English or in German. So it’s German, it’s Jana Ruth and English it’s Janna Ruth. So whatever
Rachael Herron: [00:13:15] That is very sensible and clever of you. I like that. Okay. Let me give you a little introduction to our listeners. In 2016, Janna Ruth’s plans for the new year was one submission to an agent. By the end of the year, she had won a writing competition with German publisher Ueberreuter? Am I close at all?
Janna Ruth: [00:13:39] You probably top it
Rachael Herron: [00:13:39] And was deep in the throes of publishing a second novel with a group of self-publishers. That novel, a modern fairytale retelling with mental health topics, went on to win the SERAPH Phantastikpreis. Since then, Janna has published more than 15 books in German and English. Since 2016, you have published more than 50 of the books in German and English. That is so exciting. You know, that this podcast is about process and I really want to talk to you about process. How do you publish 15 books in the last four years? Let’s talk about your writing process, when and where and how and all of that. Now, first of all, you live in the country I am moving to,
Janna Ruth: [00:14:22] Okay
Rachael Herron: [00:14:23] In New Zealand, I’m a new Zealander as well as an American and we’re moving soon and we are considering Wellington, cause we love Wellington. So you’re there, you’re writing there. And how does it, how does it go?
Janna Ruth: [00:14:36] Yeah. Well, I have the luck to be able to write full time, not because I can afford it, but because you know, having a husband, bought it and hopefully by the end of this year, I’ll be getting closer to actually contributing to the family money again
Rachael Herron: [00:15:54] It’s excellent
Janna Ruth: [00:14:55] But until then I can, yeah, I can write until the kids have all the kids at school. So that’s gives me about six hours a day, and then I am a terrible night owl. So as soon as the kids sat in bed, that’s when my creativity hits and I, yeah, I write until midnight or later.
Rachael Herron: [00:15:16] Wow, what time do you get up?
Janna Ruth: [00:15:18] During school time at 7:30.
Rachael Herron: [00:15:22] How old are the kids?
Janna Ruth: [00:15:25] They’re between 5 and 10.
Rachael Herron: [00:15:26] How many kids?
Janna Ruth: [00:15:28] Three.
Rachael Herron: [00:15:29] Okay. You didn’t say five or something. Shocking. Well of course you write at night. The rest of the time you’re probably just insanely busy. So are the kids in school and back in, in New Zealand, they have gone back to school, right?
Janna Ruth: [00:15:46] Not yet.
Rachael Herron: [00:15:47] Not yet.
Janna Ruth: [00:15:48] It’s just, yeah. So it’s pretty much one more week and they’re going to go back next Thursday.
Rachael Herron: [00:15:53] And then when they’re in school, do you write during the day or is it just, are you just a night person?
Janna Ruth: [00:15:57] I do write during the day, but usually I use those day hours to do all the admin stuff and, you know, contacting people or I’m very bad with procrastinating. So I sit down and it takes, sometimes it takes me like three hours to get started. It’s just,
Rachael Herron: [00:16:14] I feel that
Janna Ruth: [00:16:15] I could be more effective.
Rachael Herron: [00:16:17] I totally understand that. Okay. So, so this is a question that I’ve wondered before about people who write at night. Because I’m sorry, I’m just, I’m terrible at it. How does it go when you start to feel sleepy and you’re writing?
Janna Ruth: [00:16:30] I don’t actually
Rachael Herron: [00:16:32] Okay. That’s the answer because I get this feeling like I am going to, like, my head is going to hit the computer.
Janna Ruth: [00:16:38] It’s really weird because usually, I mean, there are days where I’m like, sleep is a whole day and I’m like, okay, I have to go to bed early today. And so, and then 10:00 PM hits and I’m like wide awake and it’s really weird. And, yeah, if it’s writing, I think it depends a lot. Like if I’m in a flow, I can keep writing and pushing past the tiredness, which then probably hits around like one or two or, it very rarely goes past 2:00 AM, but yeah, it has happened this week. So
Rachael Herron: [00:17:10] is that when you’re in a good flow and things are happening, is that tend to happen?
Janna Ruth: [00:17:13] Yeah. That was a really good chapter and I really wanted to finish it
Rachael Herron: [00:17:19] And you write primarily speculative fiction, right? Yeah, you have a fantastic covers by the way, too. Okay. So do you write, you’re obviously right at home. Do you have an office or is that where you’re sitting here?
Janna Ruth: [00:17:33] Yeah, that’s basically my office, in the back, that’s where my husband sits and plays games. So it’s not just for me. Pretty much, especially in winter because you know, New Zealand houses, aren’t the warmest.
Rachael Herron: [00:17:46] My wife is terrified about that. Yeah. So tell us more.
Janna Ruth: [00:17:52] So, for some reasons the whole family then starts to move into my office. Gosh, it’s the warmest places
Rachael Herron: [00:18:00] Also all the bodies in one room yeah.
Janna Ruth: [00:18:03] It has really worked, yeah, it hasn’t really worked with closing myself off to have writing time or something. It’s yeah.
Rachael Herron: [00:18:10] But you do okay
Janna Ruth: [00:18:12] We’ll stay out during the winter.
Rachael Herron: [00:18:13] You’re able to write with that kind of distraction around you. Some people find that it actually helps them. Does it help you or does it distract you?
Janna Ruth: [00:18:20] It does distract me. That’s probably why I’m more productive at night.
[Read more…] about Ep. 223: Janna Ruth on Transforming Trauma into Art